Possibly my last Post.

Well, it’s been a while yet again since I last wrote anything here. There hasn’t been a lot happening for me the last month or so. I have only gone and done outside ministry maybe 3 times. We had a visiting team from Germany for about a week. I was able to take them out and do a Jesus movie showing with them which went very well and they were really blessed by it. Most of my work has been around the base doing all the little practical things that have needed to be done for a while and only now someone has time to do it. I have also been teaching people some of the technical things as well, such as the sound equipment and some simple computer knowledge as well.

I was able to on a weekend outreach 2 weekends ago and it went not according to plan which is normally in the plan. We were partnering with a local church in Blantyre and went to help them do some evangelism with the Jesus movie. We got there Saturday right around lunch time (which we skipped for some reason) and went straight into praying with people. We were told that there was a gather of people just down the road so we set off, on a different path that we came in on. Coming to an old bridge the car in front me didn’t slow down and all and have way across the bridge it broke and the car fell in. Thankfully the bridge wasn’t very wide, maybe 2 meters or so and the car had already passed over most of it so we were able to push the car up and out without any hassle.
The rest of the trip seemed to go all the same as the bridge breaking. Almost everything we did was turned upside down in some way. The Jesus movie got stopped half way through due to a mass amount of rain, which of course stopped when we were reading to head home after packing up. Though it rained again as soon s we got to base camp in the village. The next morning we got stopped by the Chief of the village as he was not informed of our visit which is customary in African villages to do. Thankfully after some apologizing he was accepting of us and even in the end asked us to come to his home area next time we come around. Sunday we yet again had a great outpouring of rain during church. We still had a great service with some testimonies, words of encouragement and praying for people. Over-all the trip went well even though it didn’t go as “planned”, though when you live in Africa you plan to have things go away from the plan.

We have had some other outreaches like this Easter weekend the base had two different teams go out and do some ministry. One was a conference were about 100 pastors got together for some training and the like. They had a great time, though again things didn’t go as planned but they really felt that things got done within that church and the teaching was really taken to heart. Another team, of just two people and a solar Jesus movie had two nights of Jesus movie showing. The first night the battery of the solar kit died and they were unable to finish but still able to pray for some people and the second night went much better.

It is great to part of a base that has such a strong heart to do ministry and even though I don’t feel so much inclined to do much ministry everyone around me has a desire to seek God’s heart through ministering to those around them.

My time is certainly winding down to an end very soon, might even be me last post before coming home. Thanks again for all your prayers and support in the last 7 months of my life.

Blessings and love from Malawi Africa.

Travis VR

Resting up/Whats Happening Next

Well it certainly has been a while since I last wrote in here myself, as my mother wrote the last real blog update along with my short input into it. But since my parents left and the DTS has now ended things have slowed down pretty much to a complete stuff for some time. Since the DTS ended all the students were asked to go home though many of them have asked to come onto staff here at YWAM but since we are in the middle of a transition we didn’t want the new staff members to join YWAM and just be sitting around for a couple weeks as the base leaders went back to the UK for a funeral and the rest of us as staff are just resting up as the last 5 months have been very busy for us. Though as the DTS winded down and I said goodbye to my parents and many new friends (some just for a short time) I started to relax a little bit, though I have been able to keep busy with different things.

During the week my parents left there was a lady from the UK staying with us and I took her to an orphanage as well as into town so she could be a tourist and get some things from Malawi before she went home. My first Sunday of “rest” wasn’t much rest at all as I had to be up early to be at a church nearby so that I could do sound for an event they were doing. It was a long 8 hour church service, graduation and time of giving and though I didn’t understand all of it I still really enjoyed the time and it was a blessing for that church to be able to use our equipment for that event. I think I’ll also be doing Easter with them as they again are doing a big event and need some equipment.

The last week or so has been fairly tame as all I have really done is picked up another Canadian couple that are here to work with YWAM for some time and then see where God takes them, seems to be that Canadians are taking over this base which is nice, I really enjoy having other younger Canadians around. Today though, we went to a day orphanage for disabled kids, which was a real treat as we are starting to feel like we need to get back into the swing of ministry after our time of rest. The sad part for me was that we went there to ministry to the disabled kids and yet there were so many kids that followed us there that they more a less took over our ministry time. The time was still very much enjoyed by each one of us and we are looking to keep going more over the next season. (We have sent teams there many times before during the lecture phase but in the last 3 months we have gone only a handful of times)

As for the rest of my time here I really don’t know what is in store. I will probably do a couple weekend outreaches to some villages to do Jesus Movie showings as well as head back to Ntaja (where we lived for 3 weeks doing outreach) to look at the land that YWAM has purchased and is planning some buildings to be put onto. But for the most part I don’t have much planned at all and am ok with that I have some things I need to be thinking about as well.

The interesting thing about the last month or so is that God has planned out the next 4 months for me already. When I first got here I was so worried about what I was going to do, and till about December time I was so anxious and didn’t know what was going to happen and yet when I finally let it go God stepped in and took control and has led me to be doing some things I didn’t really expect.
The first thing I’ll be doing is in May, shortly after I get home. I have worked at the All Ontario Youth Conference (AOYC) the last 2 years and have been asked to come back again to volunteer but amazingly I’ve also been asked to speak in 2 sessions on Saturday about YWAM and my experience in missions so far which is incredible as I have been asking God to open doors in both doing more at AOYC and spreading the word about YWAM since many young people don’t know about it.
Second is that while my parents where here I applied to work at camp Shalom, though I applied on the last day that they were taking applications. About 2 weeks later when I had moved past it I received an e-mail asking about an interview and amazingly they were willing to make a call out to Africa to do an interview. Today I received news that I have gotten a job there being a counsellor for the summer. Camp is really an incredible place that I spent part of my childhood and a place where I really grew in my relationship with God but also grew in my leadership calling as well. I was a counsellor there about 4 summers ago and haven’t been back at all since then but have missed it every summer and each January/February time of year I think about applying again so I am very excited about this summer and know that God has great things in store.
As for after August I haven’t thought that far ahead, though I have some ideas of course, but I have learned just to trust in God for guidance and He will show me what to do and will open and close doors as needed.

Again I thank you all dearly for your prayers and thoughts in my time here in Africa. I am sorry that my communication skills aren’t always the greatest and I have failed to keep up with my weekly update but I hope this finds you all well.

Many blessings

-Travis VR

GRADUATION (a guest entry by Anna Van Rootselaar)

Congratulations to the Justice DTS graduating class of YWAM Blantyre 2011/12. After a busy Friday and even Saturday morning of preparation (cooking, cleaning, cooking, arranging furniture, cooking, and cooking), the grads started receiving their guests. We all had lunch together out on the kondi (back porch). Daniel (the base leader) informed the guests they had some choices for their meal: there was chicken or chicken, rice or rice, cabbage or cabbage. So we all ate chicken, rice and cabbage for lunch and then moved inside for the actual ceremonies.
Grad started with a time of Praise and Worship. The Malawians we have met are all quiet, unassuming, gentle, kind people...but then they start to worship. In worship they become dynamic, animated, exuberant, full-body, full-voiced worshippers. The drums start, the voices are vibrant and harmonic, the bodies move, the whole place starts to shake. And I can’t help but realize that worship is a cultural expression of our faith and God accepts it all, no matter the expression as long as the faith is real.
The graduates followed worship with 10 minutes of 30 second testimonies, which at first I thought was an indication of African time but which turned out to be the students taking half a minute to speak of one highlight of their time here.
The Identity Drama followed. Drama is a tool used for outreach and, since it is set to music with no speaking parts, it requires no translation. In this drama four characters depict the despair of the blind, the hungry, the lame and those who mourn. Then Jesus comes and takes their burdens on himself. They are set free; He is stronger than the chains of their burdens so He is able to cast off those burdens. It’s very powerful.
Patric C and Shona then shared their testimonies, speaking of the powerful things God has been teaching them and doing through them while they were here. Interestingly, a Malawian missionary spoke at Shona’s home church in Switzerland and through him, Shona felt called to come to YWAM Blantyre.
The Everything Drama followed. In this piece, the basic creation-fall-redemption story is told. A young woman is formed by the Creator. They share a warm, loving relationship until she is tempted by the other. Soon she is looking to money, alcohol, drugs, witchcraft, impossible standards of beauty for her salvation, her identity. These things only drive her to despair and she is soon on the brink of suicide. But the Creator steps in, taking on the evils that tempt and freeing her from them so that she can again be in relationship with Him. This drama is so moving, and when it was presented in church on Sunday (today) it moved many to tears and led one woman to speak. She said the drama was her story: she had run away from home into a life of drinking, drugs and prostitution and as she was considering suicide she met Jesus and she is now, more than 20 years later, free to live with Him, in Him, for Him.
The graduates finished their presentation with a time of prophecy. I think the most intense part was when Ali stepped forward and indicated he had a word from God for one particular man. Ali told this man God wanted him to be hopeful, to know that he was a source of hope to those around him and to never lose hope because God was with him always. The man sat in tears receiving this word and could only bow in prayer when Ali finished. Our friend Patrick M (he calls me Momma as a sign of respect and affection) finished by calling forward the sick who were prayed for and prayed over—just as these students have been praying over and for the sick in dozens of other times and places throughout their outreach.
The Vice-chair of the board of YWAM Blantyre addressed the graduates, challenging them in the calling that lies ahead of them. And then the graduates received their certificates. As each one came forward, a staff member told us something unique about the student and his/her contribution to DTS. We prayed over the graduating class to close out our celebration. What an incredible gift from God to be able to participate in this day.
At dinner late Saturday evening, the staff presented their students with special awards—all inside jokes relating to the unique experiences of each student: Ali got a bra, Patrick a toy pig, Anna and Andy a toy car.... Each award involved a story, and invoked enormous amounts of laughter and good-natured kidding. It was a privilege to share their stories.

A note from Travis:
It has been such a blessing to have my parents here for this short amount of time, I'm astonished that they are already going to be leaving on Wednesday of this week. Though I feel like I haven't done enough with them outside of the base (the DTS has been very busy with coming to a close) but I know that it has been a good time of rest and relaxing for them and also encourages them in seeing some of the work that I've been doing in Malawi and the way of life here as well. We did get to do one Jesus movie showing last Sunday so please remember to ask them about it as I'm sure they have some stories to tell from that evening as well.

Thanks again for all the love and support
Blessings in what ever this season of life is bringing you through.

Peace and love
Travis, Anna and Ron Van Rootselaar

3 Weeks Living the Village Life

As you may have read before, the team and I took off for three(3) weeks to go and do some evangelism in a Muslim village nearby to Mozambique. We set off on the 14th of January and came back on the 5th of February. We have just been resting till now and been trying to figure out what is next. Most of the team left again yesterday (Friday) to head down to southern Malawi, where it’s nice and hot, for the last week of the DTS outreach phase. I stayed behind so that I could over see what is going on from here as well as the fact that my parents are coming on Wednesday and need to plan their trip out here as well as be here when they get here. I thought I would just write a quick update about some of what we did as well as one or two of my own highlights of or time away.
We split all the students into three teams for our time away, each team being assigned something to do each day and then work on a rotation through-out the time. One team would be on cooking each day, one would be on local ministry and another on Jesus Movie. In the afternoons the cooking team would be in charge of running a kids ministry for about 2 hours. We’d turn up the music and the kids would flood in from all directions, even though lots where already there. They would do some dancing, games as well as a short drama or bible skit (always need to be doing our Christian input of course). Over all the kids’ ministry went really well and on our second last day we had one big final party for all the kids with some drinks, candy, face painting and other games. There was really a great impact made on the kids as we could see within about 2 weeks there was already a change within some of them.
The second team would be doing local ministry each day, meaning that they would go around and do door to door ministry, or walk around the local market and talk to people. One of the highlights for people doing local ministry was going to be well to collect water for the day, it was a time to talk to the women of the area and just be helping to them, pumping water and helping with their. It also made talk in the way that the locals would get a good kick out off some of the white foreigners caring water on their heads or in different ways.
The third team would be the Jesus Movie team, pretty self explanatory. The team would be going out at night to show the Jesus movie in different villages nearby. We also did two trips out with one team to show the Jesus movie in a couple farther away villages. So we would go out for 3 days or so and show the Jesus Movie all three nights in a row in three different villages but have a main centre place to sleep. One of my highlights was during one of the three day trips that I took the team on. A lady came to us one morning looking for prayer; she said she had back pain as well as pain in both of her feet. We started praying for her, and nothing happened, prayed again and nothing happened, then Pastor Size (our contact out that way) starting talking to her. Once they had finished talking back and forth the conversation was translated and he was saying that she came to us for prayer, but that if nothing happened when we prayed that she would go straight to the witch doctor. This motivated us even more to press in and keep praying, we were now crying out to God for a miracle to take place and for this woman to feel a touch from God. After we spent a couple minutes praying we said amen and all looked at the women with anxious eyes. She looked no different to us but said that she was feeling less pain in her feet and that her back was healed. We were excited that God had touched her but wanted to see her fully healed. After praying for some more time she said she was better and walked away with her two kids. The next day though she came back and was looking so much better and said she slept so well that night and was so grateful for our prayers and concern for her. It was amazing to see the power of God fall even though we knew there was a battle going on inside her and for her life. God conquers all!
The second highlight for me was on a Friday night when a team and I went out to show the Jesus movie. The church we were at was surrounded by trees and there was very little open space to do the movie but we still had a great turnout of about 400 people or so. After we had finished watching the movie, maybe 100 people gave their life to Jesus and we had called people forward to healing I went forward to pray for people. The first person Benito and I went to go pray for was talking to Benito and he was translating for me. We prayed and he said he was feeling, Amen Jesus, but then he started speaking in English about what was going on. I was in shock as I stood there talking to him, hearing about the last 3 years of this young guy’s life and the pain he had been suffering. This was the first time I had ever prayed for someone, God heal them and then find out that they speak English. I was able to chat with him about life and what has been going on and then just felt the need to pray a blessing over him. Over all it was a great experience and was in a great time where I was just getting into the routine of praying for people, not understanding anything and them being healed and not being excited about being better. But both of these experiences where a true blessing from God and really was perfect timing.
The DTS is just about over now, the students are off on their last week of outreach like I said before and we are here at the base just doing some administrative things and getting reading for what is next. In March it looks like I will be helping either doing some church planting and also planning some work with a church already in Blantyre, doing some outreach with some of their members. I’m excited about the rest of my time here as I really don’t know what it’s going to look like yet but that’s part of being a missionary, you never know where God is taking you, all you can do is hold and enjoy the ride that He’s taking you on and man am I excited for that ride.

Like I always say, feel free to e-mail me with any comments or questions about what I’m doing or with anything really. I normally reply pretty quickly as I really appreciate the e-mails.
Many blessings from myself and the team here in Malawi, Thanks for all the prayers and support that you have given all of us here. May God bless you richly.

Back in Blantyre

Hello everyone.

The team and I are all back in Blantyre after our 3 weeks stay in in a village close to Mozambique. It was really an incredible time with a large number of people coming to Christ in a Muslim area and also we saw many different healings. I will write again hopefully soon with some of my personal highlights and our team highlights but for now am still recovering from exhaustion and just having time to rest and relax.

Thanks for all your prayers and support as the team and I were away.

Blessings

A couple weeks away

It’s been a pretty amazing last couple weeks since my Christmas video. We have had a week of teaching and done many different outreaches to different areas, mostly locally. God has really been using the whole team to bring people to His kingdom and also to see many healings. We spent the beginning of the week just within walking distance of the base and really saw God move powerfully. We had two teams going out and though we were only out for a short period we saw God move powerfully and spoke through each of us. There is such a need everywhere and we could spend weeks just in the local area doing outreach and ministering to people but alas there are other people through-out Malawi that we also need us to minister to them.
This week we are finally getting around to preparing for our trip out to one of the Muslim villages that we have been planning and have pushed back a little bit. Thankfully we know that we will go when God wants us to go and be there right when He wants us to be there. This trip is out to a pretty remote place though we will be setting up a bit of a base there with our own kitchen, sleeping in tens and hopefully having our own water source and electricity though we do have a generator we will use if need be. We are planning to be gone for about 3 or 4 weeks and I don’t plan on taking my computer with me so I will not have any communication for that time. So this is just a quick post to say that I will be gone for that time but will gladly respond to e-mails when I get back to the base and my computer.
Here are some things you can pray about for the next couple weeks:
-Fuel for the whole trip
-electricity/water for the time being there
-The out pouring of God’s presence/Spirit
-A boldness for the team
-Safety as we travel around
-People accept our words

Many blessings to everyone.